The last time a pope shook hands with an Iranian leader
By Adam Taylor
January 26
On Tuesday morning, Pope Francis welcomed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to the Vatican — a historic act that seems to herald the return of Iran to the international stage and a new embrace by Western institutions. But it isn't the first time that an Iranian political leader has visited the head of the Catholic Church in recent memory.
In 1999, Pope John Paul II met with then-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami at the Vatican. It was the first encounter between the head of the Catholic Church and an Iranian leader since the revolution that had turned Iran into an Islamic republic. Although the Vatican had not broken off diplomatic relations with Iran after 1979, the last formal meeting between the leaders of the two sides had been in 1970, when Pope Paul VI met with the shah of Iran in Tehran.
Critics of the Iranian regime had opposed the pope's meeting with Khatami in 1999, but the Iranian leader — a Shiite theologian who was considered a reformist — was later effusive in his message of openness. "The hope is for the final victory of monotheism, ethics and morality, together with peace and reconciliation," he told the pope after their 25-minute meeting, the Associated Press reported.
The pair exchanged gifts, with the pope giving Khatami a painting of the saints Peter and Paul, and the Iranian leader reciprocating with a handmade Persian rug that featured a design of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Later, Khatami told an audience in Florence that there are no "quintessential differences" between faiths.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/26/the-last-time-a-pope-shook-hands-with-an-iranian-leader/
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